Nasher

Oh goodness, I just have to hear the ending to this brilliant life-saving plan. Do tell me WYL, where is a man who grew up in outback Australia, who is an initiated tribal man, with a poor grasp on the English language and even poorer grasp on how to integrate with "Western" society, going to go and be safe? Who will take him there?

I've never shared the view that we as a club, or indeed any other club, doesn't want the "fickle" supporters. I would have thought most clubs would want all the members it can get regardless of how many consecutive years that member signs up, or how many matches she attends. Seems bizarre to be saying "pfft, keep your money, horrible fickle supporter!", especially when we're hardly rolling in cash.

Because the Irish players haven't been using the same dodgy kicking action since they were 5, presumably, so they have fewer ingrained bad habits to try and break.

Good form and injuries notwithstanding, I'd be staggered if they deemed that Sellar was a better option than Clark. As far as I'm concerned if Clark is fit enough to play for Casey then he's fit enough to play for Melbourne.

Obviously Jordie did a sterling job representing him.

My recollection of the theory is that it's because by the time you're in your 20s you have done so much kicking that your action is too firmly burned in to your 'muscle memory' and it's difficult to get in enough repetitions (many thousands) in to change it. Kicking for goal is a different matter because you have time to think through your kick, but general field of play kicking is a split second thing and happens almost automatically. I wouldn't put too much confidence in this as I'm just going off very sketchy memory, but it seems to make sense to me. I know that for me, if I'm playing "kick to kick" with someone I always guide the ball nicely down on to my foot because I know that's the best way to do it, but whenever I played I tended to do the Cam Bruce drop it from chest height thing.

How about young Jordan Silk? It's a tad early, but he's now in his third first class match (for Tasmania) and already has two centuries in his belt including one in the final. Ripping start to a first class career if nothing else.

I'm another that has never bought in to the Collingwood "rivalry" - sure they've got an army of ferals and Eddie is annoying, but for the most part most of their supporters that I interact with are bearable. Except my eldest brother; not sure there's anyone in the world more annoying than him when they're up. I find it a little cringeworthy that some cling on to a rivalry from the 1950s, especially when that rivalry has only been one-way for decades now. Anyway, Essendon is #1 on my list for all the reasons already mentioned. The fact that we've had the wood on them in the years we've been otherwise utterly abhorrent makes my life as an MFC supporter bearable for one week every year.

Usually they don't urinate on you in the media after they've steered your ship though.

Again this thread uses the logic of retention of a marginal player to justify the retention of another marginal player. Use the good players as the benchmark, not the crap ones.

Sorry for mass-quoting, but these 5 posts miss the point. It's not whether or not what he's written is accurate, it's the fact that Lyon is a massive contributing factor to these problems. He was one of those responsible for implementing Bailey, is part of the crew that turfs him, then gets another crack when it comes to appointing the next coach - followed by articles like this. Gaz has a dream role: he gets to play the hero every time the club "needs" him, then he gets to piss on the solution when it doesn't work, as if it had nothing to do with him. I reckon it stinks.

I agree Maldonboy. Corny but funny. Definitely don't know what the blokes above who are embarrassed about it are on about.

I was taking the pee a bit. I'm actually completely numb to Sylvia these days, I jumped off the rollercoaster ages ago. It wouldn't surprise me if he played out of his skin this year and then buggered off, but my gut feeling is that he will stay.

I believe in Colin.

Same here. Felt dirty when he went, but understood the circumstances. Hi Stephen

A year already? Jesus wept, where has that time gone? Hopefully the big bloke is still RingIP.

It's not about what Neeld tolerates or what Neeld accepts. The idea that players will behave when they respect the coach is all nice and dandy, but it's what the player does when he's not at the club, and not under the coach's watchful eye that is a worry. If the player has no self control or sense of correct behaviour, then it doesn't matter how wonderful whiz bang the coach is. If the player is out of control I don't want a bar of it. Richmond abandoning such a clearly talented player so young is a massive red flag in this regard. Also, before old dee accuses me of only wanting choir boys, in between the extremes of "choir boy" and "out of control lunatic" is a huge big grey area that I'm happy for our playing group to fall in.

I work with dozens of footy fans and not one of them has any depth of understanding at all. Reality is that most people don't have the time or inclination to become students of the game. Supporter forums are just a microcosm of that.

C&B, when was the last time we put a solid effort and beat a good side? That description sounds very last decade-ish.

Yes, I saw Ben Graham tell a story about that on TV once. Supposedly Aaron Lord drilled a kick to Ablett on the lead, then after Ablett kicked the goal he turned to Graham and asked, "who is he?". Not knowing the names of some of your teammates is unimagineable to me. What a fascinating and possibly terrifying place his brain must be.

Yes, that's the joke. Stand on a spot, turn 360 degrees, and tell me if your view of the world has changed much.

A whole season? Pfft. I think we should cycle coaches every time we lose a match. Why wait?

There's a bloke called Ricky or something making a mountain of runs in the Shield. Anyone heard of him? :-)